How access to water has changed Catherine’s dreams

Jan.23.2018 by WildPlains Foods

In a country dominated by agriculture and manufacturing, the young are often molded to suit roles designed to these industries. With crippling poverty and inadequacy of basic resources, dreams of the young are silently locked away… for practicality & survivability. Seeing the immense impact Wild Plains Foods Projects have on people in some of the most venerable parts of East Africa gives us a sense of purpose to carry on the work that we do every day.

There are innumerable motivational stories that we come across, each more unique than the other. One such story is that of Catherine Mutuognja, a young girl studying in the 12th grade (Form 4). With a good academic record, and as one of the toppers in her class, it would seem like she would be on her way to securing a “regular” job, a conventional job.

She dreams of becoming a fashion designer – a profession unheard of in this part of the world. A dream that she wouldn’t dare talk about until a few months ago when the school she is staying and studying in had a severe water crisis, requiring her to leave her studies and walk about 4-5 hours everyday to get water from the river. A schedule like this for a school-going young girl, is inconvenient to say the least. Not only did it hamper her studies, it also made it difficult for her to explore her passion.

Here’s what she has to say to us: “Every day after school we had to walk a few hours to the river to try to collect water from the river. Sometimes even in the middle of school we had to leave our classes & get water from the river for our personal hygiene requirements.” Now we have a borewell in our school & I don’t have to miss classes. We never used to get time to study or play after school, now we can do both. “ “This borewell is a blessing to us.”

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